We Fell from Grace with the Sea
by atomatrix
Summary: Year 846. Hanji and Levi pick up a girl on the verge of death in the ruins of Wall Maria. She is Commander Irvin's niece — physically handicapped and hated by Levi — but despite the obstacles, she may just be humanity's greatest weapons engineer yet. /Multiple pairings; eventual LeviOC.


**a/n: **This fandom has taken over my life like the Titans did to Wall Maria (/sobs into the sun). Thus, I've written this story to vent out my feelings. It's based on a special chapter in the manga that tells Ilse Langner's story. She was a member of the Scouting Legion who came across a talking Titan before effectively dying. Her journal is picked up by Hanji and Levi afterwards, and that's where this story of mine starts. Yes, there is an OC, but please bear with me? Happy reading!

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**Prologue**

White noise drowns all else beneath the water, green light refracted in the spaces where crimson poppies bloom into pearly pomegranates that bleed into the sharp yellow of a wasp against soft, white corneas with fleshy, blue veins, bursting into rotten teeth and biting into the limbs of a broken doll left forgotten in a burning house, its corpse lifted from the ashes by hands of giants, pale and grey, a darkness so asphyxiating red, red, _red _and…

Sunlight…

She jolts awake, eyes wide open and lungs heaving for breaths of air. Bursts of dizzying black assault her vision, and the sudden vertigo is so disorienting it nearly has her retching bile from her empty stomach. Feverishly, she wonders how long she has been asleep. Her skin is slick with sweat and the temperature seems horribly cold despite the summer sun shining fiercely from above.

She pulls her cloak tighter around her shoulders.

_Ugh, another weird dream… Where the hell am I anyway? _

As the black in her vision dissipates, her eyes finally focus on the foliage surrounding her – the dappled sunlight through the leaves, the rough bark beneath her hands…

_A tree. _

…

_The fuck? _

Her eyes quickly scan her surroundings, making note of the thick, tapering branches and the amount of coverage the leaves provide. She realizes she's perched high in the canopy of a great oak, but she can't remember for the life of her how she wound up here. Her memories are vague at best – discolored and distorted. There is a fast-moving landscape under a bright, bulbous moon, so perhaps she had been traveling last night (_or was it the other night?_), but she can't recall being anywhere near a forest.

Tilting her head up to the sky, she winces as the sunlight hits her eyes. The sun is already at its highest peak – noon time, when _they _are the most active – meaning that she had slept for at least eight hours. Far too long. If she were to look down from her perch right now, surely one of_ them_ would be below. Watching. Waiting.

The thought sends shivers down her spine and she rubs her arms furiously to rid away the onslaught of chills and gooseflesh. _Calm down_, she thinks. _You already checked; there aren't any in the area yet. Just get your shit together and start moving. _

Taking a deep breath, she wills herself to stand up and stretch. Her joints creak and crack from the movement, and her lower back aches from the awkward position she had slept in. After a couple more bends and rotations, she grabs the satchel against the trunk of the tree and removes the maneuvering gear from inside, reequipping it to the back of her waist. While adjusting the straps of her body harness, she checks the gas supply, noting grimly that there's only half a tank left. _I'm going to have to make some adjustments before nightfall. _

With that thought in mind, she slings her satchel onto her back and begins to assess her options.

_Well, I'm clearly in the middle of a forest. Trees look to be around 18 meters in height, lower branches overlap… Good, that means I can move without ever having to touch the ground. Still dangerous though, if a big one decides to show up… _

_Should I move right now or wait till dark? _

After a few more seconds of deliberation, she chooses the former. _Would be best if I can find a taller group of trees._

Climbing down to the lower branches, she starts making her way from tree to tree. There's a dull ache at the back of her head and a parched soreness in her throat, but she dismisses the symptoms. After a few more minutes however, it's clear that something is off. It isn't just her head and throat. _My movements are also sluggish_, she notes with a frown. She keeps walking though, hoping the fog would eventually dissipate. But try as she might, she couldn't seem to shake it out of her bones. The throbbing in her head intensifies and steadily, everything becomes unbearably bright and loud all at once.

She's just about to stop and take a break when suddenly–

_Voices? _

Crouching down, her ears strain to pick up the murmur of sound she thought she just heard.

"…Members… thirty-fourth expedition."

She stops breathing. _That voice isn't far from here. _Her eyes begin frantically sweeping the area for the sign of life that had miraculously appeared. When she finally spots two figures – two very _human_ figures – standing on the outskirts of the forest, she almost cries out. From relief or fear, she can't tell. (Not anymore.)

"…Soldier who died a year ago… Let's only take her jacket…"

There's a man and a woman. Both wearing green capes. Metal contraptions strapped to the back of their waists.

"Staying here any longer is dangerous."

They appear to be soldiers.

"–vi, what's that in your hands?"

_Soldiers_.

"This is… Ilse Langner's military gains."

Just then, she feels the hairs at the nape of her neck rise. That distinct feeling of being watched, of something close by, paralyzes her for a split second before she turns her head around to look…

Right into the eyes of a 7 meter Titan.

A scream rips from her throat, adrenaline roaring through her veins like a bolt of lightning as the Titan's mouth stretches into a large and grotesque smile. Instinct instantly kicks in and she jams her finger against the trigger, grapple hook shooting out and latching onto a tree 10 meters ahead and pulling her forward just as the Titan's open mouth lunges for her form. It misses her feet by a hair's length, teeth meshing into the bark of the tree branch. In its eagerness to devour a human meal, the Titan's face crumples into a mass of broken bone and lacerated flesh from the sheer force of collision.

Splinters of wood and teeth ricochet in all directions, but the Titan's mistake buys her the few crucial minutes needed to escape, and she wastes no time in using those minutes to her advantage. _How the fuck did one that _big _sneak up on me? Was I really that distracted? _She berates herself for her carelessness as she propels through the thinning thicket of trees, towards the forest's edge. The two figures ahead are now facing her direction.

She prays that her intuition is right about them.

"What the fu—" are the first words she hears when she bursts through the last line of trees and crash lands onto the ground. She rolls several feet before coming to a stop, groaning from the less than gentle landing. Her hood slips off her head as she lifts her face out of the dirt and looks up. A man with ink black hair and hard eyes stares back, surprise evident on his face.

The earth shakes from the Titan thundering towards them.

The man's lips curl in a sneer. "Oi, you brat, where the hell did you just—"

"Levi!" the woman says anxiously, "I think you might want to deal with the Titan first and question her later!"

The man holds her gaze for another second before turning on his heel to face the fast approaching Titan.

"Orders, Hanji."

"You sever the ankles and I'll make the cut."

"Roger."

In the blink of an eye the two are off the ground, charging towards the Titan. Levi remains relatively low in the air while Hanji flies toward the topmost branches of the forest. The Titan notices, its eyes shifting between the two before fixing upon Hanji. Its mouth stretches even wider, as if delighted to see new prey. Its steps slow, and Levi seizes the opportunity.

In an instant his blades slice through the Titan's ankle, the cut so deep it nearly severs the entire foot off from the limb. Within a second he is attacking the other, tendons splitting wide open causing the Titan to stumble and lose its balance. As it falls forward, Hanji dives towards the nape of its neck, double blades poised, and in one fluid motion she cuts away the vulnerable area of flesh.

"Not bad for a rookie!" Hanji shouts.

Levi only nods in response, eyes still fixed on the Titan to make sure it's disintegrating.

"It's definitely dead, Levi. Let's go." Sheathing their swords, they retreat from the forest.

"Hey, where'd the girl go?" Hanji asks when they landed back in the clearing.

"Over there," Levi points.

A few meters behind their horses, Hanji sees the girl bent over, shaking violently from harsh, jagged coughs that were wreaking havoc on her frail frame. Hanji immediately runs over and kneels down next to her.

"Hey, hey are you all right?"

"I'm fine," the girl says, but it sounds more like a wheeze.

Levi scoffs. "Clearly, you're not."

Hanji ignores him. "Is that 3D maneuver gear? Where did you get it?"

"I made it."

"How?"

"The materials are in my satchel."

Hanji exchanges a look with Levi.

"How old are you?"

The girl groans, arms trembling. "Mngh, twelve."

"How long have you been out here?"

But the girl just shakes her head and her arms collapse beneath her. Hanji quickly intercepts the fall, grabbing the girl by the shoulders and gently lowering her onto the grass. In the process, her cloak falls open, revealing a stump of smooth flesh. Where a second forearm should have been.

"You… You're missing an_ arm_," Hanji says in disbelief.

The girl nods weakly, her eyes flickering shut. Levi notes that her breathing is shallow and labored. He presses a hand on her forehead.

It's burning.

"Hanji, she's running a high fever."

"Then let's bring her back with us."

* * *

Levi's eyes drift towards the girl lying in the supplies cart, her small body ensconced in a thin blanket.

Her hair had spilled out of her hood again; thick strands caked in grime, but he could see streaks of white (almost silver) blonde shining through in the afternoon sun. Her face, illuminated by the light, is all hard lines and sharp angles – cheeks hollow, eyes sunken. He remembers how she had felt like nothing but a mass of skin and bones when he had grudgingly picked her filthy form up and carried her to Hanji's horse.

She had felt so horribly (_hauntingly_) light.

God knows how long the girl had been surviving out here on her own.

He remembers not believing even his own eyes when she had flown out of the forest earlier in the day. _A ghost_, he had thought instantly – an apparition suspended in midair for several beating hearts before crash landing right at his feet. A hallucination conjured from his damaged mind that had already seen too many of the dead in the ruins of Wall Maria, their trampled, mutilated corpses rotting beneath the unforgiving sun.

But when the girl lifted her head and (startling) green eyes met his, he knew she was real. That she was alive.

But he didn't know if that was better or worse.

If Levi had to choose only three words to describe her, they would be small, pale, and dirty.

And he instantly hates her for being the way she is.

His train of thought is broken when someone pulls up beside him.

"Levi."

"Commander."

Irvin smiles for a second at the stiffness of his protégé's reply.

"Who is the girl?"

"We don't know. We found her running from a Titan in the forest where Ilse Langner's notes were discovered."

"She was alone?"

"Yes."

"With 3D maneuver gear?"

"She claims she assembled the gear herself. Her satchel had contained all the necessary tools and materials."

"I see…" Irvin trails off, mulling silently over the information.

"And it's true that she's missing an arm? Hanji was rather hysterical when she gave me her report."

Levi grimaces at the image of the spectacled brunette in hysterics. "Hanji is correct. She's missing her right forearm, to be precise."

The girl stirs, and the two men shift their attention to her. As her eyes flutter open, Levi once again notices the peculiar, viridian shade of her eyes. Her brows knit together in concentration while her one good arm sluggishly pushes her body up into an upright position. After she finally shakes the last bits of sleep out of her system, she turns to face the two men observing her.

Levi feels Irvin stiffen beside him as the girl's bright eyes widen in shock at the sight of the commander.

Her lips fall open.

…

"Uncle?"

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**a/n: **Thanks for reading! I hope it wasn't too boring, haha. This will be a multi-chapter fic, but since I'm in my senior year of high school, updates will be infrequent and most likely far apart. I will try my best though if there are people who are interested in reading more. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! (And yes, I did just make Commander Irvin (or Erwin, Ervin, however the fuck you spell his name) an uncle. Considering how Levi is rumored to be 34 years old, I assume Irwin is just about as old if not older.)


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